Smoking is slowly being stubbed out among Wanganui students, the latest Action on Smoking and Health (Ash) survey shows.
The anti-smoking lobby group released its snapshot survey of New Zealand's Year 10 students yesterday, and it highlighted that the smoking rate among them has continued to drop since the first survey in 2000.
National daily smoking rates were shown to have fallen below 3 per cent for Year 10s for the first time, with Wanganui achieving below the national average of 2.7 per cent - a significant drop from last year's survey when the daily smoking rate among Wanganui students was 5.7 per cent.
Ash spokeswoman Stephanie Erick said: "We believe that the continued decline in smoking rates is fantastic news and we commend local services in their commitment to a smokefree New Zealand for our children.
"It's more important now than ever to recharge the batteries and continue to tackle smoking through sustained legislation, particularly for our Maori and Pacific communities."